Study: People with home offices want laptops

Laptop computers are quickly overtaking desktops as the tool of choice for home office workers, according to a new survey.

Merle Sandler, a senior research analyst for IDC, said her company's survey took a look at the spending habits of the 33.1 million U.S. households that have home offices. The research was conducted as part of a broader study on mobile communications trends.

According to the report, home office households are more technologically savvy than other types of homes, and are more likely to upgrade their current computers or add additional PCs, especially higher-margin portable PCs.

"We broke it down into two major categories," Sandler told CNET News.com. She noted that there may be some overlap, but "you have the corporate worker that works at home after hours or telecommutes. Then you have the full-time and part-time small-office/home office employee who runs their business out of the home."

So what is the well-stocked mobile home office running on these days? Well, according to IDC's findings, most home workers who are buying laptops--56 percent--are choosing the "thin and light" category, which usually consist of screens that are about 15 inches and come with a CD read-write drive and perhaps a DVD player.

The second-most-popular category, according to IDC, is the desktop replacement group--notebooks that tend to be more fully loaded. With 33 percent of home office notebook sales, Sandler said, these computers are chosen for their multimedia capabilities and larger screens.

The least popular choice seems to be the ultra-portable category, which often excludes an optical disk drive as a way to save space and keep the price tag low.

Home office workers are also interested more in processor speed and brand name than they are in price, according the survey. Sandler said processor speed ranked the highest among factors to be considered when choosing a notebook. A large hard drive and memory capacity are also important.

Respondents did not demonstrate interest in many brands other than Dell. Sandler said that 20 percent of respondents were not sure which company they were going to buy from.

"Basically, they named Dell as their most likely choice for a new laptop, followed closely by the response, 'I don't know.'" The survey did not suggest any particular brand name in the questionnaire, Sandler said.

"It'll be interesting to see where Lenovo ranks next year," she added.

The indecision was also compounded by an apparent lack of concern about price. The issue of price ranked low, as did concern about wireless access. Sandler suggests that the unlikelihood that a laptop to come without wireless capabilities may have played a part in consumers' low interest in that particular feature.

"These days, wireless might be taken as a given, meaning that it's not that important as an add-on feature because they are assuming that they will get it anyway," Sandler said.

IDC's annual comprehensive look at the home office market is due out later this year, but these buyers' strong interest in notebooks is perhaps not surprising, given that portable computers are increasingly popular.

Notebooks now make up 45 percent of the PCs sold in the United States, according to IDC.

Additionally, in May, laptops outsold desktops for the first time for a full 30-day period in the United States, according to research company Current Analysis. The company said that laptops accounted for 53.3 percent of the total PC retail market in May.

[the Otter]

Sorry, Dell.

A few years ago, my job included supporting my employer?s <br />network of about 25 Dells. Based on that experience, I would <br />NEVER own a Dell, for any reason. Even if I were to get one for <br />free, I?d probably just sell it on eBay. The amount of problems <br />inherent in both the software and the hardware is not short of <br />mind-boggling, and when the time came for me to get a new <br />computer, I went with the Power Macintosh G5. Not only is it <br />fast, reliable, and?oh yes?beautiful, it was also about $2,000 <br />less than a comparable Dell (which, ultimately, was the only <br />reason my boss let me add a Mac to his all-Dell network).<br /><br />Almost three years later, my home office consists of a Power <br />Macintosh G3, a Power Macintosh G5, and an iBook G4?and, as <br />of last Friday, a Dell Dimension that belongs to my wife?s <br />company. Since she?s now telecommuting, as well, they had to <br />supply her with something that THEY can control?put whatever <br />THEY want on it, and nothing else. I can totally understand that, <br />but I?m not happy to have to take time out of MY schedule to <br />help her troubleshoot the piece of crap. I can?t say that I?ve <br />never had any problems with the Macs, but certainly nothing <br />serious?especially not since upgrading to Mac OS X v.10.2. The <br />Dell, on the other hand, is already having serious problems. On <br />day one, it couldn?t see the network. I finally managed to get it <br />online, but after only three days, my wife can?t even check her <br />e-mail. (Outlook has crashed twice, in the last five minutes.)<br /><br />All I can say is that if her employer expects me to support this <br />thing, they?re going to be paying me for my time. If I?d wanted <br />to spend all my time fixing computers, I?d have bought a Dell, in <br />the first place.<br /><br />Just my 2¢.

[culture_of_one]

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

As a consultant to numerous SMEs, I simply cannot fathom where the author gets his information. His conclusions are pure "bantha pudu".<br /><br />Everyone I know who has a home office and is the least bit serious about doing business (including my wife and myself) has a desktop as their primary computer. Laptops are considered "supplementary" and are strictly for the road. We certainly do care about the price of things, and no one likes Dell.<br /><br />The only thing this article has done is got me wondering how long it will be before someone tries to convince me that Hare Krishna is the leading religion in North America.<br /><br />-JDM

No more Dell for me

I liked ordering what I wanted on line from dell, but one of my dells fried a motherboard and customer service in India wouldn't honor the warranty. They told me it was viruses and I didn't install microsoft patches correctly. I feel sorry for non programmers calling for help. My very expensive new dell lost the hard drive in the first few months, but support for the expensive dells is in the US, unfortunately the guy installing the new computer hard drive had no idea what RAID was and took 3 hours to install the hard drive while I tried not to laugh as their customer support tried to tell him how. I wish I had a video. Then there was the time I helped someone order a dell as a gift for her husband and it didn't work. Her geek friends had to reinstall the software and get it working. Don't bother asking Dell for help. Buy local. I ordered a generic one on line but the warranty is 90 days so forget that method I soon had to replace the processor fan etc, but the one I got from Fry's seems to be the best method. It came fully loaded at a low cost and best of all I can get it fixed there.